Career Interview

Career Interview Assignment
Conduct a 20-minute interview through Zoom, Teams, Skype, Facetime, phone call or it may be face-to-face, with a person who currently works in a position that you would like for yourself after graduation. Focus the questions of your interview on the communication skills needed in that particular job. After the interview you must write a paper about the information you gained from the interview.

The way you want to think about focusing your questions for the interview is by thinking about it in terms of – “Communication in the Workplace.” What would you like to know most about your interviewees’ job/profession/organization, as it relates to communication? So, if we think about it like that, the following are examples of questions that one may ask during the interview.
You may want to start with closed questions (which are yes/no short answer questions) and then move toward more open questions (which are questions that allow for elaboration). You are required to ask the questions in bold below. The additional questions may be asked based on your interest. You may have other questions that you would like to ask, and that is fine. Do not hesitate to ask for elaboration or examples if your interviewee provides minimal information.
Conduct an interview that will be interesting and useful to you, in addition to fulfilling the requirements of this assignment.’

Body Interpretation and Analysis: Provide a summary of the overall interview by connecting at least three communication concepts (for example identity management, communication competence, self-disclosure Gender roles, perception checking, mindfulness, facilitative/debilitative emotions, pragmatic rules, etc.) discussed in your textbook with the information provided by your interviewee,
Questions for the Interview Assignment
Required Questions
Where do you work?
What is the title of your position?
How long have you worked in this position?
What are the duties and responsibilities of your position?
Follow-up question: Describe a typical workday in your position.
Based on your experience in your position, describe the verbal and nonverbal behavior of someone you think is an excellent coworker.
If interviewee struggles to answer the question, you may say “For example, respectful, clear in communicating thoughts and ideas, good attitude.”
Based on your experience in your position, describe the verbal and nonverbal behavior of someone you think is an unsatisfactory coworker.
Based on your experience in your position, describe the verbal and nonverbal behavior of good employee relations. Bad employee relations?
Based on your experience in your position, what is the best way to handle disagreements or conflict among employees.
What are the most important communication skills in your position?
What communication skills do you recommend should be learned/practiced in a communication class for someone entering your field?
Additional Optional Questions
Does your position require you to attend meetings? (If yes, How many a week? If they are virtual, what are the participation expectations, such as must your camera be on, so that all attendees are visible. How are questions handled during the meeting?)
What percentage of your job is spent interacting with other employees or clients?
How many people work in your division? Do you interact with all of them?
How would you describe a good leader in your organization?
How does your supervisor interact with employees? (Is it formal/informal?)
How is disagreement/conflict dealt with between supervisors and employees?
When changes are made, regarding new and/ or different employee procedures for doing something, how is this communicated to employees?
Interview Assignment Paper Requirements
Write a 4-5 page type written paper (not including the cover page, the reference page and your questions) that analyzes your interview interaction. Include the Interview Script, which includes the questions that you asked in your interview, at the end of your paper.
Your written assignment should resemble the following format:
I. Introduction
A. Attention Getter
B. Background Information: Identify who you interviewed, where they work, their position title, and why you chose to interview that person and where the interview was conducted.
C. Thesis Statement
D. Preview Main Points
II. Body Interpretation and Analysis: Provide a summary of the overall interview by connecting at least three communication concepts (for example identity management, communication competence, self-disclosure Gender roles, perception checking, mindfulness, facilitative/debilitative emotions, pragmatic rules, etc.) discussed in your textbook with the information provided by your interviewee.
A. Main Point one
B. Main Point two
C. Main Point three
D. Main Point four – answer the following questions: What did you learn as a result of this interview? How will this information be helpful to you as you continue with your education? What perceptions did you have before/after the interview? Did those change or remain the same?
III. Conclusion
A. Review Main Points
B. Closure
Documentation
You are required to use APA style for documenting your sources.
All direct and indirect quotes must be documented. All direct quotes must be enclosed in quotation marks. In other words, any information that you get from the person you interviewed or the textbook must be accompanied by both an in-text citation within the body of your essay and a References page at the end of the essay.
Note: In APA format, you do NOT list the person you interviewed on the references page.
PLEASE use the tutoring services provided by South Texas College for writing and submitting an essay that will result in a passing grade. Follow the link below to access the OWL Purdue APA resource.
APA Style Introduction // Purdue Writing Lab
The Purdue University Online Writing Lab serves writers from around the world and the Purdue University Writing Lab helps writers on Purdue’s campus.
Purdue Writing Lab
Remember: Copying all or part of your essay from either the Internet or someone else’s essay is plagiarism. All plagiarized essays will be given zeros.
Manuscript Style and Language
Use 1-inch margins; 12-point Times New Roman type, and double-space. Indent each new paragraph.
DO NOT leave additional blank lines between paragraphs. Use APA style for documenting the information you used from your interview and from the textbook. Remember, your paper should be 4-5 pages, in addition to your cover sheet, reference page and Interview Questions. Your text should have complete sentences; correct spelling and punctuation and be easy to understand.
Submission
Your submission of your Interview Essay will automatically be submitted to SafeAssign which is a plagiarism checking program.